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Central twins chasing down dad

Central's Eliseus and Eliyahu Young are fraternal twins and joke about what they would be if they were one person: "Michael Jordan in every sport."

Twenty-four years after their dad ran at state for the Bearcats, Eliseus and Eliyahu Young are trying to catch him. And at the same time, dad is chasing his sons.

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Eliyahu and Eliseus Young line up on starting blocks on Central's track during practice Monday. The fraternal twins will try to bring home a win for Central on Thursday.(Photo: Corey Ohlenkamp/The Star Press)Buy Photo

MUNCIE — The story of Central’s twin sprinters starts in the spring of 1992, eight years before Eliseus and Eliyahu Young were born six minutes apart.

That year, Ernest Young ran at state for the Bearcats in the 400 and 1,600 relay, with a 400 split of 48 seconds — a standard the sophomores will be chasing at Thursday’s Central Sectional and beyond.

And Ernest is quick to remind his sons that they haven’t quite reached his level — yet.

“I told them once they beat me, I’ll listen to you,” he says with a laugh. “But until then, you have to listen to me.”

The boys aren’t too far off — Eliseus is at 50 seconds and Eliyahu at 52 — but Eliyahu concedes, “We have a lot of work to do.”

The fraternal twins grew up similar in personality and style. “We used to be the same, dress the same,” Eliseus says. In third grade when they started playing tackle football, Ernest had them bring the pads home and use them in the backyard. Basketball games would often end in shouting matches, as it does with many siblings.

“That’s why we always are so competitive with each other,” Eliseus says. “It’s not bad, it’s good. It pushes us.”

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Eliyahu and Eliseus Young take off running down Central's track during practice on Monday. The fraternal twins will try to bring home a win for Central on Thursday.(Photo: Corey Ohlenkamp/The Star Press)

And it wasn’t just with each other, they both insist. They became that way in everything. It’s automatic in any sort of pickup game — football or basketball — that they will be on separate teams and guarding each other.

They’ve grown into different people even though they still hang out with the same group of friends and are around each other “almost 24/7,” they say. (They also have an elaborate handshake they are known to pull out.) Eliseus is 5-foot-8, 145 pounds and all business. Eliyahu is 5-10, 163 pounds and the jokester. For instance, he casually refers to himself as “the real big brother” even though he is six minutes younger, because of his size advantage. While both play football and consider it their best sport, Eliseus wrestled in the winter, while Eliyahu joined the swim team.

When they arrived to the track team as freshmen last season, they had another voice to echo that of their father’s: Central head coach Jason Wray.

Back in 1992, Wray was a freshman distance sprinter searching for any opportunity to contribute to the varsity, and he found one in the 1,600 relay with three seniors — one of which happened to be Ernest Young, who became a mentor at the beginning of Wray’s highly successful track career at Central.

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Eliyahu Young practices his handoff technique on Central's track during practice on Monday. The fraternal twins will try to bring home a win for Central on Thursday.(Photo: Corey Ohlenkamp/The Star Press)

“Now he’s returning the favor for me,” Ernest says.

“I looked up to their father,” says Wray, who anchored the 1,600 relay that won state in 1995. “And I love having his boys. You see two Young boys walking into the stadium, you know they’re going to have talent.”

Eliseus is best suited for the 400, like his dad, but is concentrating on the 100 and 200 out of necessity for the Bearcats. At the North Central Conference meet on May 6, he ran personal bests in both: 11.34 in the 100 for fifth place and 22.91 in the 200 for fourth. He’s only two-tenths of a second off the state standard in the 100. Eliyahu is with Eliseus in the 400 relay that took fourth and the 1,600 relay that took second, along with competing in the high jump and long jump.

They’ve used their father's advice to practice sprinting the 600 so the 400 is easier and in figuring how to best get off the blocks.

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Eliseus Young walks back to the start while practicing his handoff technique for the relay on Monday at Centrals track practice. The fraternal twins will try to bring home a win for Central on Thursday.(Photo: Corey Ohlenkamp/The Star Press)

And that advice may be put to the test because dad is hinting at a comeback.

“I told them I was going to get in shape to beat them both,” Ernest says, this time not laughing. “I’m going to beat them. Once I lose a few more pounds.”